I don't hate video games but I can't play any from the past 30 years worth a ****. My sons play and are always talking about reaching a new level and competing with their friends. ("I've got to get past X level because that's where So-and-So is!")

Was it even called A New Hope when it came out? I can't remember seeing that title in the crawl in 1977, but I might be wrong.

There was a bit of a cat fight between Lucas and 20th century over the Ep IV title as the execs thought it would be confusing. So the initial theatre release didn't have it, but after the massive success it was added back in. So there are probably a very few rare prints out there without it.

Not sure about A New Hope though.....I honestly can't remember whether the original crawl had it or not. I know as a kid we just called it Star Wars.

Edit: No it didn't, there's a vid on YouTube with original crawl sans A New Hope and Episode IV

I don't think if you were an adult by the early to mid eighties that it is likely you would play many video games.

That's probably why I never got into them. I spent almost all of the 80's and some of the 90's in the Army. I tell my kids, "I was shooting real guns and jumping out of real C-130's not just pretending on a video game."

Some of my memories:
1. $1 matinee of original SW (no "episode 4," no "ANH") at Bronxville theater in 1978, one of the early re-releases
2. Getting the Death Star toy Christmas 1977 or maybe '78. Loved that orange garbage compactor with the green creature and the fuzzy "garbage." Plus, you cold swing Luke and Leia across the bridge.
3. Receiving the Boba Fett figure in a little white box in the mail after accumulating the required UPC symbols (same with the Emperor years later)
4. Both the C-3PO AND Darth Vader action figure cases
5. The Millenium Falcon toy, Jabba the Hutt, TIE fighter, land speeder...<sigh.>
5. Seeing ESB at the Galleria in White Plains with my dad and brother...and definitely spending the following three years wondering if it was true...
6. in 1983, while on the school bus in 5th grade, I asked some kids who had seen the film if it was true: WAS Darth Vader really Luke's father?!?!? Yes, they said, he was. And I asked them to tell me about the rest of the film, they did. I didn't know whether to believe them or not. When I saw the film, after waiting in line two hours outside the now-defunct theater in White Plains that is now a New York Sports Club, I was extremely disappointed to see they had told the exact truth. The only thrill that remained was that of seeing an unmasked Vader. Hence, no more spoilers for me.
7. C-3POs, the cereal
8. During my freshman year of college, my parents threw away all my original-era SW toys, which would now be worth $100s

Oh, and the first airing of SW on CBS in 1982. They started the show with a video montage of people in line at Graumann's Chinese Theater stating how many times they had seen SW: "I've seen Star Wars a hundred times!" Etc.

With due respect to their experiences, SE/PT-era fans will have a vastly different appreciation than us OT folk. Today, the films are available within 6 months on BD/DVD, then on TV another 6 months later, then the Spike Channel in perpetuity. In 1982, Star Wars had been shown on TV exactly ONCE - and it was not on VHS either. FIVE YEARS after the film came out.

Yeah, there was the whole "I've got to see this again before it leave the theater" mentality because once it left the theater, we could just hope they eventually ran it on TV. And even with 2863 stupid commercials, we were still just glad to get it on TV. And hope that Reagan didn't come on and run his mouth.

(1) If the PT movies were better, I definitely would have voted for them - I much prefer the timeline and the setting and the characters. The OT movies are much better.
(2) I was very much a star wars fan when I saw the OT, before the PT came out (and prior to any EU)
(3) As of right now, I personally find that the OT characters (except maybe Han Solo) and timeline is my least favourite to read/watch about. Much prefer other works set before ANH. Although I do enjoy anything Dash Rendar related.

Oh, and the first airing of SW on CBS in 1982. They started the show with a video montage of people in line at Graumann's Chinese Theater stating how many times they had seen SW: "I've seen Star Wars a hundred times!" Etc.

With due respect to their experiences, SE/PT-era fans will have a vastly different appreciation than us OT folk. Today, the films are available within 6 months on BD/DVD, then on TV another 6 months later, then the Spike Channel in perpetuity. In 1982, Star Wars had been shown on TV exactly ONCE - and it was not on VHS either. FIVE YEARS after the film came out.

Totally different time.

Actually, the CBS showing was in 83. The only reason I remember that is I was invited over to a co-worker's house to watch it that night. It was a summer job that my guidence counciler assigned me to for after I graduated high school. I sort of remembered it as 82 also, but once I thought about it for a few minutes.. I realized it was 83. I didn't know him before that job.
I remember some guy who MUST have had money, who lived in our complex.. said he was gona watch it on a pay per view station (most of us barely had cable at the time) in late 81. We offered to pay him to let us watch it, he refused. He lived oposite my best friend, so we held a glass to the wall to listen in. This is the first time it was EVER available to watch on the TV, and he was the only person I knew who could afford it! It was a hundred bucks!!!! Most people missed out on that one, and it's since largly been forgotten. I gotta ask my friend Rich if he remembers this!
About three months later, I was working at a restaraunt in a mall. A video store was next door, and Star Wars had just been released as rental only. About three months later, it was a sale release, but for 85 bucks! It went to HBO in late 82.
I remember videotaping the CBS showing.. (Right, I just remembered.. I got my first VCR for my birthday in 1983, November 6th, so it HAD to be after that) I later taped over everything but that intro.
Harrison Ford : It was a LOT of fun! How much fun? Um... (spreads hands in the air)... about this much?
Lol!
I don't remember the video becoming a sell through until 84.. I think for about 25 dollars of so.

Want to chime in with my SW history. I watched the OT on tape in the late 80s/early 90s (I was born in '83). The Special Edition was quite special as it was my first time to see the films in theaters, though now that I'm older I do have a few issues with them, and everytime I watch The Empire Strikes Back I watch the original unaltered version, because I love it so very much.

It's hard for me to place when I first saw SW and ESB, but the first time I watched ROTJ was on VHS. My friend had taped it of TV and cut out the commercials. It was probably the worst way to watch, but I loved it anyway, and I'll always remember the good ol' days.

Oh, and the first airing of SW on CBS in 1982. They started the show with a video montage of people in line at Graumann's Chinese Theater stating how many times they had seen SW: "I've seen Star Wars a hundred times!" Etc.

With due respect to their experiences, SE/PT-era fans will have a vastly different appreciation than us OT folk. Today, the films are available within 6 months on BD/DVD, then on TV another 6 months later, then the Spike Channel in perpetuity. In 1982, Star Wars had been shown on TV exactly ONCE - and it was not on VHS either. FIVE YEARS after the film came out.

Totally different time.

Actually, the CBS showing was in 83. The only reason I remember that is I was invited over to a co-worker's house to watch it that night. It was a summer job that my guidence counciler assigned me to for after I graduated high school. I sort of remembered it as 82 also, but once I thought about it for a few minutes.. I realized it was 83. I didn't know him before that job.
I remember some guy who MUST have had money, who lived in our complex.. said he was gona watch it on a pay per view station (most of us barely had cable at the time) in late 81. We offered to pay him to let us watch it, he refused. He lived oposite my best friend, so we held a glass to the wall to listen in. This is the first time it was EVER available to watch on the TV, and he was the only person I knew who could afford it! It was a hundred bucks!!!! Most people missed out on that one, and it's since largly been forgotten. I gotta ask my friend Rich if he remembers this!
About three months later, I was working at a restaraunt in a mall. A video store was next door, and Star Wars had just been released as rental only. About three months later, it was a sale release, but for 85 bucks! It went to HBO in late 82.
I remember videotaping the CBS showing.. (Right, I just remembered.. I got my first VCR for my birthday in 1983, November 6th, so it HAD to be after that) I later taped over everything but that intro.
Harrison Ford : It was a LOT of fun! How much fun? Um... (spreads hands in the air)... about this much?
Lol!
I don't remember the video becoming a sell through until 84.. I think for about 25 dollars of so.

I thought it might be '83, but wasn't completely sure. I was 11 in 1983.

I remember E.T. also cost $85 when it came out on video. I feel like that was far sooner after the theatrical release, though, because by 1982/3, home video cassettes (VHS and Beta) were starting to gain traction.

There was a bit of a cat fight between Lucas and 20th century over the Ep IV title as the execs thought it would be confusing. So the initial theatre release didn't have it, but after the massive success it was added back in. So there are probably a very few rare prints out there without it.

I'm not sure this is true. Star Wars was initially framed as Episode I in the 12-part Adventures of Luke Skywalker; it was only during pre-production on ESB (after the release of Star Wars) that it was decided Star Wars would be Episode IV of a nine episode saga, and it was subsequently retitled A New Hope in 1981.

There was a bit of a cat fight between Lucas and 20th century over the Ep IV title as the execs thought it would be confusing. So the initial theatre release didn't have it, but after the massive success it was added back in. So there are probably a very few rare prints out there without it.

I'm not sure this is true. Star Wars was initially framed as Episode I in the 12-part Adventures of Luke Skywalker; it was only during pre-production on ESB (after the release of Star Wars) that it was decided Star Wars would be Episode IV of a nine episode saga, and it was subsequently retitled A New Hope in 1981.

I honestly can't remember where I sourced that info. It's one of those things that sitting in my memory banks, but I can't for the life of me remember how it got there.
Cripes, I hope it wasn't Wikipedia.

I'm not sure if this is asking "which is your favorite" (a question I can't accurately answer because there's no way to answer more than one), "which era was being released when you became a fan", or "which of these were the ones you watched and loved first"... Personally, I'm a fan of the saga as a whole, but the PT was coming out when I started loving the SW universe as a whole.

Regardless, this post calls for story time, and I do so enjoy story time.

When I was a kid, no one in my immediate family was much of a fan. My mom isn't into sci-fi, and my dad preferred Star Trek if he had to choose (though he enjoys SW too, and we had the SW OT on VHS, rather than Trek merch). My brother played Power Rangers and Ninja Turtles and other various things, so although I'd probably been in the room at times when the OT was playing, it was more of an awareness that SW existed, than it was the deep obsession I tend to develop with things I love. (I've pretty much made up for that in adulthood.)

I was about 10 years old when TPM came out, which caught my interest somewhat because it was such a big deal, but it was my brother's high school girlfriend who took the time to sit me down and ~show me the light~. We would have girls night, but instead of doing make up and talking about boys, we watched Star Wars and talked about...Jedi boys and Han Solo. That was around the time AotC came out, so the PT was the one that was unfolding before my eyes as a child/young teenager, but I watched and enjoyed all the of the ones that had been released up to that point. Now as an adult, I'm more obsessed than ever and have more SW toys at age 23 than I ever even wanted as a child.

The EU came FAR later for me...As in "about this time last year" later, so I still have a long way to go for that branch, but OT and PT were pretty simultaneous.

The first time I really saw SW was during one of the re-releases and I don't remember if it had Episode 4 in front or not. This was before home video, saw I *did* see it twice and the second time was definitely "Episode 4."

But, the *first* time I saw SW was before that even. My Second-grade (or third grade?) class got one of those 8mm - 12/15 minute jobs that edited an entire film out of recognition. Lots of action, but no death, terror, or too much talking or "heavy" stuff. Like, Spaceships, shooting, Vader, Droids, Ben, Han, the Falcon, Death Star, blaster fights, Luke and Leia swinging, the falcon, TIE fighters, X-Wings, Space battle, KABOOM!, medals, music. That was IT, baby. All these youngsters whining about editing down the prequels just don't know about "trimming the fat" unless you hunt down one of these bad boys.

It was just selected scenes and is now a surreal memory of my childhood.

Do a net search for "8mm Star Wars" - I think some folks have bootleg DVDs floating around where they've transferred them to disc. Probably YouTube clips and such out there.

Do a net search for "8mm Star Wars" - I think some folks have bootleg DVDs floating around where they've transferred them to disc. Probably YouTube clips and such out there.

I DO remember this! I also remember vaguely being naive enough to think it was the full film. I definately remember hunting down, desperately.. anybody who might have a projector. No dice! Great memory!